Honeyfall's Journey - A Tale of Wind, Water, and Warriors
by BirchwingWarrior
Summary: Okay guys, BirchwingWarrior here! I'm super excited to be writing my first-ever fanfiction (yay!) and I really hope that this takes off! So there's a plot summary at the beginning of the first chapter, and I SWEAR that this story will have a good plot and characters (I'm trying!). Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy! ALERT - I am currently drafting as fast as I can, so bear with me!
1. Chapter 1 - Honeyfall

**Author's Note - Hey guys! I'm writing my first fanfic right here, so bear with me. Keep in mind that I have not, in fact, read the entire Warriors series (I know! *hides face in shame*), so don't get all over me if one of my characters has already been written as a canon character. I swear that I spent hours coming up with every single name for every cat in the Four Clans, using a name dictionary. As you probably know from the summary, I am writing about a cat named Honeyfall. What I didn't get to say in the description (stupid word limit) is that Honeypaw convinces a few of her friends to go on a quest with her to the old Four Clans territories (and yes, this is after the Great Journey) and discover what has happened there. Have the TwoLegs razed everything? Or is there still a chance for wild cats to survive there? Read on to find out! **

**P.S. this might be a bit of a slow start, so just keep reading, guys! Thank you so much!**

**Chapter One**

It was a frigid leafbare night, with gusting winds ripping through RiverClan camp constantly. The only warm place was the warriors' den, which was sheltered in a recess of the ravine. Several of the senior warriors had pulled a bramble over the entrance and covered the makeshift wall in rushes. Every cat in the Clan was huddled inside, from the mewling kits and their mothers to Ripplestar, the leader. Every cat but four. Inside the medicine cat's den, a queen was giving birth.

Though the medicine cat's den could only be accessed by a narrow crevice in the rock, the wind still found its way through the passageway and chilled the cats inside to the bone. A brown and amber tabby queen sat in front of the crevice, trying to block as much of the wind as she could with her body. But the other cat paced back and forth restlessly, stealing occasional glances toward the yowling queen. His pelt was dark brown, and his amber eyes were kind.

Birchwing, the medicine cat, stood over Rainflower, holding her down as the queen thrashed in agony. This was going to be a difficult birth, but hopefully a short one.

Hickorybark winced at every agonized sound that the queen made. His fur bristled along his back, and his ears were laid back flat against his head.

After several minutes of yowling, Rainflower began to convulse, and her first kit was born. She had hardly begun to bend over and lick the protective covering off when the second kit came. Birchwing forced Rainflower to keep licking the first kit as she began licking the covering off the second. Soon, three kits lay mewling in the nest with Rainflower, and one more came quickly.

When it was over, Rainflower lay panting, her eyes dull with pain. Hickorybark rushed over, his face filled with worry.

He looked up at Birchwing. "Will she be all right? Please tell me she'll be all right. She has to be okay."

Birchwing, exhausted, could only manage a single nod.

Hickorybark curled up with Rainflower in the nest, purring comfortingly. When she finally lifted her head, joy spread across his face.

Rainflower smiled weakly up at him. "Darling. Look at our beautiful kits." He nodded, eyes glimmering with pride. "Hickorybark, we have to name them. Now, before moonhigh."

She looked down at her kits lovingly and pressed a paw to a plump she-kit with honey-colored fur and a wide-eyed gaze. "This will be Honeykit, for her spots." Rainflower nodded to another kit, this one an amber tom with a white undercoat and muzzle. "He will be Sparrowkit, and this black one here will be Moonkit." She turned to the last one, a small she-kit with thick russet fur. "That will be Cherrykit."

Birchwing beamed. "You have chosen well. They will grow up to be strong, beautiful, respected warriors." She nudged Honeykit and Moonkit with her nose. "Especially these two. There's something in their eyes that tells me they are destined to be great."

Honeykit looked up at Birchwing with wide eyes and gave a tiny mew. Moonkit, who was curled up next to the inquisitive kit, gave her sister an indignant look, and, as if to outdo her, promptly sneezed. The force of the sneeze toppled her over backwards, and the look on her face when she rose, blinking, sent all the cats in the den into gales of laughter.

When the giggles subsided and all the kits were happily nursing, Hickorybark walked over to Cedarstripe. "Thank you, Cedarstripe, for coming to the birth with me. I couldn't ask for a better sister."

Cedarstripe grinned and touched noses with him. "Hey, what are siblings for, huh?"

"Now shoo," Birchwing said briskly, beginning to shepherd the two out of the den. "Rainflower needs some peace and quiet so she can sleep. Go get warmed up in the warriors' den, and come back in the morning. She'll be right here, don't worry."

Hickorybark reluctantly left, shooting worried glances back at his mate as he did so. The wind had died down a great deal, but it was still cold. Birchwing bustled around the den and fetched some poppy seeds, giving them to Rainflower. "Here, take these. I want you to sleep so you can recover your strength."

Rainflower lapped them up eagerly, then curled around her kits and was soon asleep. Birchwing nodded, satisfied, and left the den. She walked out of the camp and to a nearby patch of rushes, then began to collect some for a shield over her den's entrance. She heard a nearby rustle and, acting upon her first instinct, pounced.

As she rolled over with the prey in her claws, she realized that it wasn't prey at all. The rustle had been made by a tiny, too-thin kitten. Birchwing looked at it, with its long brown, and white fur and frightened blue eyes, then picked it up by the scruff of its neck and carried it back to camp.

Instead of returning to her den, Birchwing slipped into the warriors' den and wended her way through the maze of chatting cats in their nests. By some powerful magic, no one noticed her until she got to the group of nursing queens near the center.

One of the queens, Fawnsky, looked over. "Oh, hello, Birchwing! What have you got there?"

The medicine cat dropped her package in the center of the circle, and every one of the queens went dead silent.

"I need someone to take care of this kit. I found it while I was out gathering rushes, and it'll die if one of you doesn't take it in."

None of the queens said anything. Then Blossombriar spoke up from the back. She was a plump queen with dark golden fur and three chubby kits. "I'll take him. My fourth kit died a week ago, and I have enough milk to spare. He can be the son that I thought I had lost."

Birchwing bowed her head. The kit that Blossombriar had lost had been a handsome tom with white fur, a blue-gray saddle marking on his back, and blue-gray paws and tail. Heronkit had been the young queen's favorite of her four kits, and when he got greencough, her heart had broken.

Fawnsky picked up the kit and passed him back to Blossombriar. She nestled the tiny tom into the curve of her belly.

Blossombriar nodded to Birchwing. "Thank you. Now I have the kits that StarClan intended me to keep."

"What will his name be?" Fawnsky looked at the golden queen curiously.

"Leafkit."


	2. Chapter 2 - APOLOGY NOTE

**Hey guys! Sorry, it's been a while - first I was drafting, then my computer got jacked up, and now there's been the whole drama about the COVID-19. So a week ago I checked on this story because I was like, **_**Hey, maybe someone said something! **_**And I have reviews! (Two, but still!). So . . . I know that some of you (at least one of you) wants me to post more. I'm super sorry, but I don't have another chapter ready yet, and I also just realized that I mixed up some names on the first chapter, so I'm going to have to edit that, take it down, and repost the revised version. Groan! Sorry guys. **

**So, if you're looking for a fanfic that's actually super good to read while I draft, check out **_**Ice Alliance **_**by NopeNotTelling. It's a cute Jelsa fic, mostly fluff but also angst and stuff, and the author works really hard. The storyline is great, the characters are believable, anyway it's sort of just amazing. Anyway, check that out, and thanks for reading! **

**Birchwing, with ❤️**

**P.S. Next chapter should be here by April (I hope). **

**UPDATE - I think I actually did fix the formatting issues (shoutout to Ivystormrandomness for the tip) and it should be easier to read now. Sorry about that and hope you enjoy! **


	3. Chapter 3 - Littermates

**Hellooooo again fellow fanfiction writers and readers! It is I, Birchwing, once again reincarnated for yet ANOTHER chapter! I'm sure y'all are already tired of hearing me talk, but I did want to give a quick background on this chapter and the ones following it because there is going to be some stuff happening. **

**So basically I wanted you guys to have a bunch of chapters to read but I also wanted to carry out a different idea that I had for a single chapter. My brilliant solution that will also spare me from a ton of formatting problems was to split what was originally going to be a full Chapter 3 into about a dozen or so mini-chapters. I'm going to try to post two of these tiny chapters a day for about a week. **

**Each mini-chapter in this series will pretty much be a snapshot into the kits' life before they become apprentices. I will try to make them as individual and interesting as possible, and as long as they can get without becoming boring or overly descriptive. Some will deal with friendships, others with Clan structure, and some with just everyday life in the Clan and how that works.**

**Anyhoo, I'm going to shut my mouth now and let you guys read. Just like always, thanks for checking me out.**

**Birchwing with ❤️**

**P.S. I updated my profile! Go look at it! After you're done reading the chapter though, obviously. XD**

**Chapter 3 - Littermates**

The very first time that Rainflower's kits left the nursery, it was a bright day in late leafbare. A frost lay glimmering on the ground, but all around the ravine snow melted and left patches of throughout the marshes and forests and windy moors. Even ShadowClan, deep in the dark pines, woke up and saw the sun shining through the branches of their woody home.

Each kit was only three weeks old, fumbling on the unfamiliar, uneven ground and finally standing, blinking up into the sun, as Rainflower's black-and-white head nudged them on out into the world.

Cherrykit stumbled into Sparrowkit, who growled in his tiny voice and smacked her on the nose with his little white paw.

Moonkit meowed and tripped over her own tail, whacking into the wall of the ravine.

Meanwhile, Honeykit was tucked under her mother's belly, looking wonderingly out into the world. At the gentle nudge of Rainflower's paw, she made her way to stand at Moonkit's side.

"It's too big," Honeykit whispered, as if afraid the enormous world would swallow her and her voice up if she spoke too loudly.

Moonkit pressed herself to her sister's side. "Let's go back inside."

The two turned and darted into the warmth and safety of the nursery, tumbling straight into Blossombriar's litter. Snowkit hissed indignantly and batted the younger kits away, Leafkit lifting his small head sleepily to see what the commotion was about. Moonkit humphed and scurried away to her own nest, Honeykit on her tail.

. . .

Outside, Cherrykit had once again managed to fumble her way into somebody's path. She had somersaulted head over heels straight into Bristlepad, a dark brown senior warrior who was perennially grumpy. He growled and stepped over her, bushy tail swinging indignantly. Cherrykit squeaked in terror and stayed curled into a tiny ball on the ground until he was out of sight.

Sparrowkit, who had not moved until Bristlepad was gone, dashed over now, his amber fur standing on end. "Are you all right? I'll save you, don't worry!"

With that brave and far-too-late declaration, he seized his sister's scruff and began, unsuccessfully, to drag her to the den. His legs strained against her weight as Cherrykit wriggled uncomfortably, and after a moment, he pulled her along the ground a whole inch.

Cherrykit had had enough. She sprang up and shook herself, trying to get the dust out of her pelt. She glared at Sparrowkit, who was trotting triumplantly away to the nursery, having failed to notice that her russet scruff was no longer between his teeth.

. . .

Inside, the siblings wrestled ferociously with each other until Rainflower sighed and said firmly, "Time for a nap. Mama's tired."

They all settled down in a heap, one on top of another, and nestled close to her mother. She resigned herself to their closeness and lay back, tipping her head to lie more comfortably. Night fell slowly and dusk turned to dark. The four kits who were destined to be great slept underneath a round, pearly moon, and somewhere in the starry sky, silvery cats whose scent was that of dreams and whose pelts flowed like water over the heavens looked down upon the ravine and waited.


End file.
